Banananananana

BATMAN!

I had to do two. You know this, right?

I decided to go a little more subtle for this one:

I painted each nail black (Pure Ice "Touch me Here"), then sponged on a combination of black, purple (Wet n Wild "On a Trip"), silver (Wet n Wild "Metalica", and white (Maybelline Color Show "Porcelain Party").

For the Bat signal, I used Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear "Night Lights" with a couple drops of "Porcelain Party" added for opacity, and drew it on with a toothpick. Once it was dry, I did add a thin layer of glow in the dark acrylic paint, just where the grey is (note to self: top coat keeps glow in the dark paint from charging/glowing).

Heroes vs Villians #4: Teen Titans, GO!

Because I'm a geek:

I couldn't decide on one Titan to illustrate for this manicure (that'd be pretty boring, wouldn't it?) So I decided to do all five.

Colors used:
Sally Hansen Hard as Nails Xtreme Wear #300 White On
Sally Hansen Insta-Dri Fast Dry Nail Color in Blue By!
Pure Ice in Touch Me Here
Pure Ice in Siren
Maybelline Color Show in Plum Paradise
Wet n Wild Megalast #213C On A Trip

I used BlueBy, On a Trip, and Siren as my basecoats. I didn't have a light enough blue for cyborg, so I mixed equal parts of Blue By and White On.

I used a few different techniques for the detailing. Scotch tape masking, dotting for the circular elements, some refining with my nail pens, and a whole lot of freehanding.

Unlike the other base colors I used, the Wet n Wild On a Trip didn't bubble thanks to the heat and humidity we've been having, and I didn't have any trouble getting it to dry.

That humidity is the reason I think I'm going to be swatching for a few weeks instead of doing nail art. It's been nearly impossible for me to get regular colors to dry and dry well. *sigh* I might not be able to do the summer challenge after all.

But! I've still got one more week of Heroes v. Villians, so stay tuned for that!

Heroes vs Villains #3: Slade

I decided to go with another cartoon variant this week, rather than a blockbuster.

Teen Titans was my favorite cartoon to watch in high school and college even trumping a good deal of the anime that got me through mountains of school work, and Slade lends himself perfectly to doing nail art.

Polishes used:
Pure Ice in Siren and Touch Me Here as a base
Wet n' Wild Wild Shine in Metallica for the diagonal stripe
POP Beauty Split Silver crackle coat
teeny tiny dots of Sally Hansen Hard as Nails Xtreme Wear #300 White On for the eyes (outlined in Touch Me Here with a nail brush)
Sally Hansen Diamond Strength Instant Nail Hardener as a top coat

This is the manicure that almost didn't happen. I started working on it Saturday night, and didn't finish it until the wee hours of Monday morning.

The first time I attempted, I was tired and distracted and kept screwing up the pattern--nails that should have had a black base ended up red, my edges were extremely sloppy, even for me, and even after two hours it wouldn't dry because it's been so hot and humid around here. Even when I thought it was finally dry and went to bed, I woke up the next morning to find imprints from the sheets stuck in the polish. So I took it all off and started again.

This time I waited a minimum of 30 minutes between coats, after discovering that my quick dry top coat would not work in this situation (more on that later this week). I held my nails in front of a fan, and by then the AC had been on for 24 hours which helped with the humidity. I did the alternating red and black nails, then left them overnight.

I forgot, however, to apply a top coat of any kind, and by the time I got back from work I had some tip wear and nicks. I applied an extra thin coat of polish where it was needed, wrapped all my tips, and then started on the decorative bits (at last!). I used scotch tape as a mask on all of the two-tone nails and the diagonal stripe, and finished it all off with a top coat (I used two coats on the crackle, just because of the uneven texture. I'll be writing about that later this week, too).

After all of that, it just makes me more pleased with the final result. I love the two-tone effects (the two-tone crackle was a spur of the moment thing), and I love the color scheme. I'm really hoping this one lasts a while--it'll be a shame to take it off for HvV #4!

Heroes vs Villains #2: The Rogue and the Celtic Sun

The X-Men cartoon premiered in 1992, when I was five years old. Searching for reference shots for this week's challenge, I started watching it again on Netflix, and oh my god. This explains so much about me. The propensity for quoting things, the "accept everyone" attitude--and my love of strong female heroines, leather jackets, multi-color hair, hip belts that have better things to do than hold up your pants, and knee high boots.

It's that later bit that inspired this manicure: Rogue.

(I'm so glad my nails aren't magnified like that in real life. They look so much neater when they aren't two inches from your face.)

For this one, I used three coats of China Glaze "Celtic Sun" for a base (more on that in a minute), and Sinful Colors Professional in #946 Happy Ending (x2) for the green stripes. For the black accents I used my black Claire's Nail Art Pen. For the accent nail, I used Pure Ice "Siren" with a streak of Sally Hansen Hard as Nails Xtreme Wear in #300 White On. I topped it all off with Sally Hansen Insta-Dri Anti-Chip Top Coat, and can I just say, it's my new favorite top coat?

I think Rogue and Mystique make great foils for this challenge, since Mystique was once Rogue's foster mother (at least in the mythology of the original cartoon. With all of the revamps that have happened in the last twenty years, I don't know if this is still true).

This was my first real introduction to comics, and I really feel that the X-Men story is one that we need right now--the message that no matter what our differences are, we can still live together in peace, and that a little tolerance can go a long way.

This was my first time trying anything by China Glaze. Here you can see my nails before I added the accents:


That's two coats of Siren and three of Celtic Sun. My camera doesn't like bright things very much, so it really doesn't show that this is a highlighter yellow. It's also very sheer, even with three layers, and I had some trouble applying it. It was difficult to get an even coat, and when the brush passed over a previously painted area there was an issue of balding. I'm glad I used it as a base, since covering it with the green made the unevenness less noticeable. I think this is another color that would benefit from having a white basecoat.

I also had some issues with the brush. One of the strands hadn't been cut, so I had to do that myself.

I know that everyone else really seems to love these summer florescent, but so far I'm not crazy about them. I guess I'm more into the dark, iridescent colors, and those are the textures I tend to go for.

Heroes vs Villains #1: Mystique

So I'm sure that by now everyone has heard of the Heroes vs Villains challenge Nailasaurus posted about yesterday. As soon as I saw that post, I had to take part.

Week 1 is Marvel themed. When I was a kid, one of my favorite cartoons was X-Men, so for this one I picked two of my favorite characters from that world.

I started with my usual prep work* ( Natural Nail Growth Activator and Diamond Strength Instant Nail hardener), with one addition. My cuticles have been driving me nuts for the last few weeks, so I broke down and got something to help treat them. Target didn't have a lot of options, though, so I went with the Maximum Growth Cuticle Pen. I've only used it once so far, but I'll let you know how I like it once I've had it a little longer.

For the base of the nails, I did my pinky, middle, and thumb with Insta-Dri in Blue By! (1 coat), and my ring and index fingers in Hard as Nails Xtreme wear #300 White On (2 coats). On my ring fingers, I used a watermarble technique to illustrate her transformative power. It was my first time trying it, and while it didn't come out the way I wanted I still think it's pretty cool. Clean up is a bitch, though.



The eyes are the tiniest dabs of Hard as Nails Xtreme Wear in Mellow Yellow, Mystique's hair is a coat of Pure Ice "Siren" over a coat of White On, since I forgot to mask that bit off at the start. I just used Scotch tape cut to size for the masking. For the details on her dress, I used a Claire's Nail Design Pen (black). I finished everything off with a coat of my Diamond Strength clear coat (two, on the index fingers. The nail pens don't have a lot of staying power, even with a top coat).

I really loved the Insta-Dri polish. This was my first time using it and I really like the way it came out. It was a great, fast drying, single coat polish, and it was exactly the right shade for what I wanted to do.

Overall, I'm pleased with this manicure, but I wish I'd been able to come up with two more designs to replace the stripes with. I might still change out the pinkies once my brain isn't fried from being at work all day.

*All of the products I used for this manicure are by Sally Hansen, except for the Pure Ice "Siren."